And so it begins...

[siropa]

Finished up the first batch of rocks that are made up of smaller base rock that I have laying around. I used a combination of fiberglass rods, wire ties and hydraulic cement. The cement alone would have been enough to securely bond the rocks it seems, but it was way easier to apply the stuff to the rocks that were first wire tied or had the rod. If you've ever used that cement, you'll know how fast it hardens.

Not the prettiest of rocks right now, but they should look fine once they get some coralline growing. or even better, cover them up with corals

this one is made up of 5 little rocks:

another one:

started the stack:

 

[Bri Guy]

This tank is going to be sweet!

looking good so far.

 

[siropa]

I sure hope it turns out

I was looking at my 75 tonight pondering how to best move all the rock that is in there when it's time for that and its going to be a pain. So many of my frags have started to encrust onto the rock that unless I want to snap them off, i'm going to have to stack around those. Guess that's a nice problem to have, but I can see the move turning into a million new frags as I accidentally break stuff.

 

[johnanddawn]

looks awesome!
a couple questiond for you
how long does the concrete have to cure before it is critter safe?
what is hydrolic cement?
i just did something similar changing three rocks into one... but i used portland mixed with reef sand. i'm going to cure it in a seperate tank of course but just wondering if it will leach anything into the tank when i do get the nerve to try to add it

 

[siropa]

hydraulic cement is used to patch up cracks or leaks in concrete (among other uses). you can actually patch up a crack or leak while the water is running and it will harden anyways. It starts to harden in just a couple of minutes after mixing. I mixed up batches that were only about 1 cup in size and that gave me about 3-4 minutes of work time.

yes it will need some cure time, but i've read that its considerably shorter time with hydraulic cement vs regular stuff. we'll see. so far with tap water curing it hasn't altered the pH, which I expected. I just put one rock in a small amount of RO water to see if it affects that. My tap water has a pH around 8.5, while the RO is around 6.3 or something.

the only thing i'm uncertain about is when to know its done curing or leeching stuff. stuff i've read about this always talks about pH, but that doesn't seem like enough of a measurement. i'm guessing some crabs or something equally cheap are going to be the first test subjects, then maybe some mushrooms or something for corals.

 

[siropa]

I got 3 of the 4 frankenlights up tonight. Luminarc reflectors they aren't, but they will do until an upgrade is justified:

view from the back of the tank:

exciting shot of where the ballasts are going to be:

side view:

rock wall, now with 300% more foam:

added another bulkhead to the tank to use with the recirculation pump I have on order:

 

[customcolor]

i love that end view!

 

[siropa]

yeah me too. I originally had the tank farther from the wall and wasn't going to be able to do it, but decided to have it close enough. will be nice to see it with clear salt water sometime soon too. kinda a murky view right now.

 

[customcolor]

with the walmart sand i got it took 1.5 weeks and its darn close to clear now. and guess what. i tryed to get the sand in the mag float and try to scratch the tank just to see how carful i will have to be in the next years to come, and come to my suprize not a scratch was heard. and i mean i draged the mag float in the sand and brought it up and nadda! i guess that cheep buy payed off.

 

[siropa]

I can't believe how long that took to clear up for you. that's crazy.

 

[customcolor]

the long wait was worth saving over $200. i got like 240lbs in it.

 

[siropa]

how deep did that end up being?

 

[customcolor]

about 1.5" above the black trim so i would say about 3"- 4" thats what i was shooting for cuz it turned out good for the 55 so i wanted to do the same. plus i like the look of the wavy bottom that the flow makes in the sand. i seeded it with 2 cups of sand from the 55 (one on each end) so i could give it a kick start.

 

[siropa]

Another update...

I decided that getting a new pump for circulation was the way to go. Got a dart.

Jason, the overflow you routed out handles the flow nicely.

An almost complete looking front.

 

[siropa]

No new pics, just an update...

The leeching from the cement seems to have stopped or really slowed and I started filling up the tank with salt water on sunday. Slow going as I make RO water.

I checked out a couple of the local stores this weekend for live rock and didn't see anything that looked decent enough to buy, especially at the $7/lbs prices. Some of it didn't look much different than the base rock I had bleached before cementing. So I ordered a box from DFS. The final price with shipping and tax was something like $3.33/lbs. Should be here thursday.

 

[siropa]

Don't you just love a cloudy tank?

 

[customcolor]

i just had a flash back aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah !

 

[siropa]

yeah I figured you'd like that shot.

 

[Bri Guy]

What is that a half bare bottom?

That tank is coming together rather quickly!!

 

[jmkarcz]

Let the algae bloom begin....


I'm assuming it's salt...